Announcing the Winners of Our Before & After Kitchen Organization Contest
Updated: Apr. 20, 2023
Check out these award-winning projects!
Back in March, we invited spring cleaners to show off their organizing skills by submitting before-and-after photos of an organized area in their kitchen. After sorting through photos from across the country, our panel of judges found 10 organizers whose ingenuity and efficiency really impressed!
We’re thrilled to announce the winners of Taste of Home‘s Before & After Kitchen Organization Contest.
See the Winning Spaces
Grand Prize: Lynn Vogeler
Lynn used a combo of clear canisters and jars to declutter the pantry space in her Barrington, Illinois, home. Since lots of dry goods look similar, she marked the containers with these TikTok-famous labels to speed up pantry shopping.
Runner-Up: Julie Herrera-Lemler
An avid baker, Julie has a growing collection of sprinkles. The Rochester, Minnesota, Community Cook moved them from a cluttered drawer to a kitchen shelf, where they’re displayed in a rainbow of matching jars.
Runner-Up: Jaime Marcum
Under-sink areas can be a big mess since they’re behind closed doors. Not at Jaime’s house in Farmville, North Carolina. She tackled the clutter with double-decker sliding trays and see-through bins that now house her cleaning supplies. Oh, and there’s room for the cat, too.
Runner-Up: Sandy Cadra
Located in Nipomo, California, Sandy’s reorganized spice cabinet impressed the judges because she did it on no budget. She told us she repurposed supplies from around her home to make the contents of a deep cabinet easily accessible.
Runner-Up: Anna Benefie
A resident of Stayton, Orgeon, Anna impressed us by making the most of various zones in her pantry. She even used the door to organize her spices. See our favorite spice organizers if yours need a spruce-up, too.
Runner-Up: Meagan Ludwig
Meagan repurposed a built-in hutch in her Milwaukee kitchen to serve as a pantry. She designated each shelf to house specific foods, ingredients and kitchenware, then filled them with clear canisters and baskets for easy access.
Runner-Up: Kelly Hawsey
Kelly’s straightforward approach to organizing and cleaning her pantry won over our judges. All it took were a new set of shelves and a coat of fresh paint to kick off the process in her Lexington, South Carolina, home.
Runner-Up: Robert Johnson
Community Cook Robert knew that organizing a freezer can be tough when you can’t see the contents of the containers inside. To combat the chaos, the Chino Valley, Arizona, resident created an extremely detailed freezer inventory spreadsheet that really impressed the judges.
Runner-Up: Tamara White
Deep cabinets and pantries like Tamara’s can be tricky to organize because your arm can only reach in so far. This runner-up from Pine Lake, Georgia, found a way to group and categorize her family’s snacks using large, labeled baskets that everyone can pull out and look into.
Runner-Up: Michelle Osterhuber
The original shelves in Michelle’s Middleburg, Florida, pantry stopped partway down the wall, leaving space for stuff to pile up below. She replaced them with solid shelves that can house a lot more food and kitchenware.
Congratulations to all our winners! Bookmark our Contests page for more chances to participate and win.